00:00With the summer festival season heating up, the government's been under pressure to reverse
00:07its stance against pill testing.
00:09The Premier concedes he was one of the least enthusiastic of his cabinet colleagues.
00:13I was a sceptic going into it, but ultimately we all need to be led by the evidence, we
00:19need to be led by the facts as they're presented to government.
00:22The Premier says the recent drug summit helped change his mind.
00:26It's presented from around Australia and the world that pill testing can change behaviour
00:30for the better.
00:31So we know 10-20% of people throw away their pill after it's been tested.
00:37We know drug taking is moderated after it's been tested.
00:41The 12-month trial will involve medical professionals who'll be able to warn drug users about the
00:46potential dangers.
00:47I can assure you as a parent of a 14-year-old, illicit drugs scare the living hell out of
00:52me.
00:53But I'm also realistic.
00:54The problem with pill testing, or a trial of pill testing, is it sends a message that
00:59normalises drug use.
01:0119-year-old Alex Ross-King died from an MDMA overdose in 2019.
01:06Her mother, Jenny, denies suggestions pill testing offers a green light for drug use.
01:12It's actually not, it's a red light, because they're actually stopping for a moment and
01:15thinking about what they're about to do.
01:17The government says police patrolling festivals will steer clear of the drug testing tents
01:22and won't search those coming in or out or gather intelligence there.
01:26But the Premier says there'll be zero tolerance everywhere else.
01:30That means continued use of sniffer dogs and even strip searchers, something critics say
01:35will be counterproductive.
01:36You would think if you passed a line of police with sniffer dogs and one of your friends
01:41gets dragged off to be strip searched, you're probably not going to go and use the pill
01:45testing tent because of the attitude of police that day.
01:48The Premier admits parts of the policy are contradictory, but he hopes the trial will
01:53save lives.
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